President Bola Tinubu has told a visiting Deloitte Africa delegation that Nigeria's economic reforms are working, describing the country as making "serious foundational progress" after three years of difficult but necessary policy changes.
Tinubu received the delegation, led by Deloitte Africa Chief Executive Officer Ruwayda Redfearn, at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele and Nigerian Revenue Service Chairman Zacch Adedeji were also present.
The President said the reforms had steadily stabilised the economy, strengthened fiscal and revenue systems, repositioned financial institutions and positioned Nigeria to be more globally competitive.
He acknowledged the difficulty of the journey but maintained the direction was right.
"Yes, reforms are difficult. It has not been a McDonald's customer relationship but a harvester of good things, if implemented well, and that is what we are about," he said.
"The reforms on revenue will continue to stimulate growth. And the effect of the reform? Yes, some issues are difficult to take the bitter medicine, but it is working well. For the economy, Nigeria is making serious foundational progress," Tinubu said.
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He urged Deloitte Africa to deepen its impact on the Nigerian economy by training and recruiting from the country's large youth population, drawing on his own history with the firm.
"The family of Deloitte; you just reminded me of my cradle years in accountancy and where I cut my childhood accounting teeth in Chicago. Deloitte has a good training programme, and I believe you will continue to reflect that," he said.
Redfearn said the firm, which employs more than 500,000 people worldwide including over 6,000 across Africa and posted revenue of $74 billion in 2025, was committed to supporting the administration.
"We are before you to say that we want to serve. We have a local team on the ground that is ready, as well as the global firm, to support you and support your administration as you lead the country," she said.
Deloitte West Africa Chief Executive Yomi Olugbenro echoed the commitment and stressed the importance of cascading the benefits of reform to ordinary Nigerians.
"There is a need to truly extract more value and deliver the dividends of democracy to ordinary Nigerians on the street. The bigger work is really about how to cascade some of those big reforms further down," he said.
He assured the President that Nigeria would benefit from the firm's global experience supporting governments worldwide.
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